Announcers talk their way into final

The Lao SEA Games Opening and Closing Committee will select 10 winners from among 20 selected announcers for the games at a final contest to be held at the Lao National Culture Hall on Friday evening.

SEA Games announcers will be chosen at a contest to be held in the National Culture Hall.

Mass Culture Department Deputy Director General Dr Douangchampa Vudthisouk said yesterday there were 20 finalists selected from 90 initial applicants.

“We will be able to select only 10 winners or five pairs from these 20 people to be announcers at the opening and closing ceremonies of the first SEA Games to be held in Laos ,” he said.

He said the first pair will participate in the opening ceremony on December 9, and the second will take to the stage during the closing ceremony on December 18.

Meanwhile, the other three pairs will act as substitutes, and will also have some other tasks as well.

“Out of these 20 applicants, some of them are fluent in English, but are not as proficient in speaking Lao because they grew up in countries where English is the first language. All of them hold Lao nationality,” Dr Douangchampa said.

He added that as announcements would be made in both Lao and English, competition entrants needed to have very good skills in both those languages.

The committee for the contest would allocate scores as follows: 60 percent for English fluency and 40 percent for fluency in Lao.

This was because it was an international event and announcers must know English, while presenting the best of the nation's characteristic displays of culture and tradition in the form of dress, charm and behaviour, he said.

“We have nine people on the judging committee for the final contest, of which five are foreigners with English speaking ability, with the remaining four being Lao.”

Lao Journalists' Association Vice President and member of the contest judging committee, Mr Somsanouk Mixay, said each of the 10 people selected would receive 5 million kip and certificates of honour.

They will have the very important role of making public announcements, including the introduction of programmes, during events including the opening and closing ceremonies, he said.

It would not be easy to select these 20 applicants because some of them spoke English very well, while some of them had previous experience working as announcers on television and as masters-of-ceremony at big events.

“The winners of the contest will have to undertake further training from our committee in order to be perfect announcers at the games.”

The public has been invited to attend the competition on Friday.

Entrance is free, and attendees will also be able to enjoy performances by members of the National Circus and singers from well-known Lao bands.

 

By Panyasith Thammavongsa
Ocotber 22 , 2009

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